Do they differ from what your parents remember? Or do your children remember things differently?

Just curious because I was chatting with my mum ther other day about what I considered to be some of my best Christmas memories from my childhood. She had a totally different memory of things that happened since I was too little to know any better and it made me wonder.

For instance I remember my dad's best friend and his kids (we refer to them as our uncle and cousins) spending Christmas with us in Alaska at our house up in the mountains. I had just turned five and my grandparents had moved away. I only had a brother so having another girl in the house was amazing. As well as all the big showy things they did that year like throwing jinglebells on the roof and making shadows in front of the windows and in the hallways that looked like Santa, etc.

My mum's memory is totally different because it was the first Christmas after their mother died and she was trying to make it seem a little less empty and trying to make sure their Christmas was good because their dad was so very depressed.

The Christmas after that was amazing, Santa came to our house and delivered the presents in person and it was a big deal. It was the first year after our mum was alone with just us 3 kids to raise. We hardly saw my dad anyway so it wasn't really noticeable when he left.This was also right after we moved out of a shelter for battered women and children and into a tiny appartment for the first time and our Christmas came from a charity group that brought along a real Santa to deliver the toys and a Christmas dinner. If my mother hadn't told me later I'd never have even known. All I remembered when I was a kid was that I got roller skates and they were amazing.

I also remember my stepfather spending his first Christmas with us, but he wasn't married to mom at the time. He was very young, 23 at the time and he was trying to impress my mum so he took us out to get a real Christmas tree. I found the perfect one and was very insistent that it was "THE" tree. I do recall hopping a barbed wire fence for it, but I was 7 and that really didn't seem like a big deal when I was 7.Looking back it's hysterical because apparently it was a tree in the local cemetary and even though it was stupid, he didn't want to disappoint me because he really wanted us as his family.

Replies

by Anonymous 1

December 3, 2012 at 3:41 PM

I don't ever talk about my worst experience with my mom so I don't know if it would differ or not but here's my worst Christmas memory. I was 11 and it was Christmas Eve. We were having a party at our house and all of our family and friends were there. Anyway. Long story short, I started my period for the first time. We were not prepared because I had no signs it was coming and my mom was already going threw here change so we had nothing stocked up for that day. All the stores were closed so I couldn't just go buy any. Anyway, my mom ended up telling quite a few women about it hoping that they would have a pad or anything so it was no longer my secret. To make matters worse, my at the time 10 year old brother spotted a dark spot in the back of my white pants and blurted out that I pooped myself. By the end of the night everyone knew what had happened and was congratulating me on my entry into womanhood. Lol looking back I can laugh now but that was the family Christmas story for years. :(

I don't ever talk about my worst experience with my mom so I don't know if it would differ or not but here's my worst Christmas memory. I was 11 and it was Christmas Eve. We were having a party at our house and all of our family and friends were there. Anyway. Long story short, I started my period for the first time. We were not prepared because I had no signs it was coming and my mom was already going threw here change so we had nothing stocked up for that day. All the stores were closed so I couldn't just go buy any. Anyway, my mom ended up telling quite a few women about it hoping that they would have a pad or anything so it was no longer my secret. To make matters worse, my at the time 10 year old brother spotted a dark spot in the back of my white pants and blurted out that I pooped myself. By the end of the night everyone knew what had happened and was congratulating me on my entry into womanhood. Lol looking back I can laugh now but that was the family Christmas story for years. :(

Ugh sorry sweetie. My family delights in telling embaressing stories about me and while they are funny now that I'm a mom myself, it was always not so funny at the time.Yeah I mention things from time to time when chatting with my mum but I usually avoid things that I think were bad things. My brother also tells different versions of these stories since he's a little older.

I've been really fortunate that my Christmas memories are good ones. I have too many other bad memories and am glad I don't associate Chsirtmas with them. Though some of the bad things I remember weren't so bad for others. All about perspective I suppose.